little of your heart or Case Deal not with such as resolve to humour you 4. They must be men of fidelity and well tryed to be such that you may trust them with those secrets which you are called to Reveal 5. They must be men of great stayedness and wisdom that they may neither rashly pass their Judgement nor set you upon unsound unwarrantable or dangerous Courses 6. It is suspicious if they be men that are so Impudent as to draw out your secrets and scrue themselves deeper into your privatest thoughts and ways then is meet Yet a compassionate Minister when he seeth that poor Christians do endanger themselves by keeping secret their Troubles or else that they hazard themselves by hiding the greatest of their sins like Achan Saul or Ananias and Saphira and so play the Hypocrites in these Cases he may and must urge them to deal openly 7. Above all be sure that those that you seek advice of be sound in the Faith and free from the two desperate plagues of notorious false doctrine and separating dividing inclinations that do but hunt about to make Disciples to themselves There are two of the former sort and three of the latter that I would charge you to take heed of and yet all is but four 1. Among those that erre from the Faith next to Pagans Jews and Infidels whether Ranters Seekers or Socinians which I think few sober godly men are so much in danger of because of their extreme vileness I would especially have you avoyd the Antinomians being the greatest pretenders to the right comforting afflicted Consciences in the world but upon my certain knowledge I dare say they are notorious subverters of the very nature of the Gospel and that free Grace which they so much talk of and the great dishonorers of the Lord Jesus whom they seem so highly to extoll They are those Mountebanks and Quacksalvers that delude the world by vain ostentation and kill more then they well Cure 2. Next to them take heed of the Papists who will go to Rome to Saints to Angels to Merits to the most carnal delusory means for Comfort when they should go to Scripture and to Heaven for it And then take heed that you fall not into the hands of separating dividers of Christs Church The most notorious and dangerous of them are of these three sorts 1. The last mentioned the Papists They are the most notorious Schismaticks and Separatists that ever Gods Church did know on Earth For my part I think their Schism is more dangerous and wicked then the rest of their false Doctrine The unmerciful proud self-seeking wretches would like the Donatists make us believe that God hath no true Church on Earth but they and that all the Christians in Ethiopia Asia Germany Hungary France England Scotland Ireland Belgia and the rest of the World that acknowledge not their Pope of Rome to be Head of all the Churches in the World are none of Christs Churches nor ever were Thus do they separate from all the Churches on Earth and confine all Religion and Salvation to themselves who so notoriously depart from Christs way of salvation Indeed the extreme diligence that they use in visiting the sick and soliciting all men to their Church and way is plainly to get themselves followers and they are everywhere more industrious to enlarge the Popes Kingdom then Christs So far are they from studying the Unity of the Catholick Church which they so much talk of that they will admit none to be of that Church nor to be saved but their own party as if indeed the Pope had the Keys of Heaven Indeed they are the most impudent Sectaries and Schismaticks on Earth 2. The next to them are the Anabaptists whose Doctrine is not in it self so dangerous as their Schism and gathering Disciples so zealously to themselves And so strange a curse of God hath followed them hitherto as may deter any sober Christian from rash adventuring on their way Even now when they are higher in the world then ever they were on earth yet do the judicious see Gods heavy judgement upon them in their Congregations and Conversations 3. Lastly meddle not with those commonly called Separatists for they will make a prey of you for the increase of their party I do not mean that you should separate from these two last as they do from us and have nothing to do with them nor acknowledge them Christians But seek not their advice and make them not of your counsel You will do as one that goes to a Physician that hath the plague to be cured of a cut finger if you go for your comfort to any of these Seducers But if you have a Pastor that is sound in the main Doctrines of Religion and is studious of the Unity and Peace of the Church such a man you may use though in many things mistaken for he will not seek to make a Prey of you by drawing you to his party Let him be Lutheran Calvinist Arminian Episcopal Independant or Presbyterian so he be sound in the main and free from Division Thus I have shewed you the Qualifications of these men that you must seek advice of 2. Let me next adde this Let them be rather Pastors then private men if it may be And rather your own Pastor then others if they are fit For the first consider 1. It is their office to be Guides of Christs Disciples under him and to be spiritual Physicians for the curing of souls And experience telleth us and sadly of late what a curse followeth those that step beyond the bounds of their calling by invading this office and that God blesseth means to them that keep within his order 1 Thess 5 12 13. Heb. 13.7.17 Not but that private men may help you in this as a private neighbour may give you a Medicine to cure your disease but you will not so soon trust them in any weighty case as you will the Physician 2. Besides Ministers have made it the study of their lives and therefore are liker to understand it then others As for those that think long study no more conducible to the knowledge of Scriptures then if men studied not at all they may as well Renounce Reason and dispute for preheminency of beasts above men as renounce study which is but the use of Reason But it appears how considerately these men speak themselves and whence it comes and how much credit a sober-Christian should give them Let them read Psal 1.2 3. Heb. 5.11 12 13 14. 1 Tim. 4.13 14 15 16. and 2 Tim. 2.15 and let them return to their wits Paul commands Timothy though he was from his youth acquainted with the Scriptures Meditate upon these things Give thy self Wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all How much need have we to do so now 3. Also Ministers are usually most experienced in this work And wisdom requires you no more to trust your soul then you would do your
submission then else I should do For as I am much perswaded that the Rooted in Grace do never fall quite away so if I were sure that they did yet I know so much of the Graciousness of Gods Nature and his Covenant that he will not forsake any that do not wilfully forsake him and I have so full a Resolution to cleave to him wrought in me by his Spirit and such experience of tender Love and his preserving me in Trials that I have a strong confidence that he will never permit me to fall from him Yet do I see a Necessity of daily praying to him Not to Lead me into Temptation but to Deliver me from the evil and to live in continual watchfulness expecting daily Assaults and renewing daily my Repentance and Resolutions Thus have I as truly as I am now able opened my very heart and state to you as before the Searcher of my heart which I have done for three Reasons 1. That my Judgement may be truly known in the Point of Perseverance 2. Because I finde the communicating of Experiences of each others hearts and states is of great use to Believers 3. Because I finde that many Godly people by divers passages in my Book of Rest about Living in Heavenly Delights do think that I have attained a greater Certainty then I have and that themselves are unhappy and must live uncomfortably till they can attain to that which they think I have done As for those that think and will be ready to say that I am warping to Arminian or Popish Doubting I regard not their words or censures I am none of those that dare in the hearing of God affirm that I have the Certainty which I have not meerly to avoid the suspition of erring Nor dare I by hot Disputes maintain that which the constant Experience of my self and the best and most of my acquaintance doth contradict and believe my Authors before my own heart and the undoubted testimony of Christians concerning themselves Yet remember that I do not deny but many others may have both more Assurance of their own Sincerity and more clear understanding of the Doctrine of Perseverance then I have which may give them a Certainty that no true Believer shall quite fall away I dare not think that others have not a higher degree of Light and Certainty then â— have But I think by this time I have perswaded you that a proper Certainty of our Salvation is not so common a thing as some Controversal Doctors or some self-conceited Prosessors do take it to be And therefore that you must not lay all your comfort on your Assurance of Salvation As for them who are most highly confident both of the doctrine of the Certain Perseverance of every Believer meerly upon tradition and prejudice because they have been alway taught so or else upon weak grounds which will not bear them out in their confidence and are as confident of their own Salvation on as slender grounds having never well understood the Nature of saving Grace Sincerity Examination nor Assurance nor understood the Causes of doubting which might else have shaked them I will not call their greatest Confidence by the name of Assurance or Certainty of Salvation though it be accompanied with never so great boastings or pretenses or expressions of the highest Joyes And for your self I advise you first use those comforts which those may have who come short of Assurance DIRECTION XVI 16. The next thing which I would have you learn is this That There are several grounds of the great Probability of our Salvation besides the general grounds mentioned in the beginning and by the Knowledge of these without any further Assurance a Christian may live in much Peace and Comfort and in Delightfull Desirous thoughts of the Glory to come And therefore the next work which you have to do is to discover those probabilites of your Sincerity and your Salvation and then to receive the Peace and Comfort which they may afford you before you can expect Assurance it self I Shall here open to you the several parts of this Proposition and Direction distinctly 1. I told you in the beginning of the four grounds of Probability which all may have in general from 1. The Nature of God 2. And of the Mediatour and his Office 3. And the universal sufficiency of Christs satisfaction 4. And the general tenour of the Promise and offer of Pardon and Salvation Now I adde that besides all these there are many grounds of strong Probability which you may have of your own Sincerity and so of your particular Interest in Christ and Salvation when you cannot reach to a Certainty 1. Some kinde of Probability you may gather by comparing your self with others Though this way be but delusory to unregenerate men whose confidence is plainly contradicted by the Scriptures yet may it be lawfull and usefull to an humble soul that is willing to obey and wait on God I mean to consider that if such as you should perish how few people would God have in the world Consider first in how narrow a compass the Church was confined before Christs coming in the flesh and how carnal and corrupt even that visible Church then was and even at this day the most Learned do compute that if you divide the world into thirty parts nineteen of them are Heathenish Idolaters six of them are Maâ—ometans and only fiâ—e of them are Christians And of these five that are Christians how great a part are of the Aethiopian Greek and Popish Churches so ignorant rude and superstitious and erroneous that salvation cannot be imagined to be near so easie or ordinary with them as with us and of the Reformed Churches commonly called Protestants how small is the number And even among these What a number are grossely ignorant and prophane and of those that profess more knowledge and zeal how many are grossely Erroneous Schismatical and Scandalous How exceeding smal a number is left then that are such as you I know this is no assuring Argument but I know withall that Christ died not in vain but he will see the fruit of his sufferings to the satisfaction of his soul and the God of Mercy who is a Lover of mankinde will have a multitude innumerable of his saved ones in the earth 2. But your strongest Probabilities are from the Consideration of the Work of God upon your Soul and the present frame and inclination of your Soul to God You may know that you have workings above nature in you and that they have been kept alive and carried on these many years against all opposition of the flesh and the world It hath not been a meer flash of conviction which hath been extinguished by sensuality and left you in the darkness of security and prophanness as others are You dare not give up your Hopes of Heaven for all the world You would not part with Christ and say Let him go for all the pleasures of sin
Flesh-pleasing The three great sinnes therefore that do most directly fight against God himself in his Sovereignty are 1. Pride or Ambition 2. Worldlines or Love of Riches 3. Sensuality Voluptuousness or inordinate Love of Pleasures There are in the Vnderstanding indeed other sinnes as directly against God as these and more radicall as 1. Atheism denying a God 2. Polutheism denying our God to be the Alone God and joyning others with him 3. Idolatry owning false Gods 4. Infidelity denying Jesus Christ our Lord-Redeemer 5. Owning false Saviours and Prophets in his stead or before him as do the Mahometans 6. Joyning other Redeemers and Saviours with him as if he were not the alone Christ 7. Denying the holy Ghost and denying Credit to his Holy and Miraculous Testimony to the Christian faith and blasphemously ascribing all to the devil which is the sinne against the Holy Ghost 8. Owning and believing in devils or Lying spirits in stead of the Holy Ghost as the Montanists Mahometans Ranters Familists do 9. Owning and adjoyning devils or Lying spirits in coordination or equality with the Holy Ghost and believing equally his doctrine and theirs as if he were not sole and sufficient in his Work All these are sinnes directly against God himself and if prevalent most certainly damning three against the Father three against the Sonne and three against the Holy Ghost But these be not they that I need now to warn you of These are prevalent only in Pagans Infidels and Blasphemers Your troubles and complaints shew that these are not predominant in you It is therefore the three forementioned sinnes of the Heart or Will that I would have you carefully to look after in your troubles to see whether none of them get ground and strength in you 1. Enquire carefully into your humility It is not for nothing that Christ hath said so much of the excellency and necessity of this Grace When he bids us learn of him to be meek and lowly when he blesseth the meek and poor in spirit when he setteth a little child in the midst of them and telleth them Except they become as that child they could not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven when he stoopeth to wash and wipe his Disciples feet requiring them to do so by one another How oft doth the Holy Ghost press this upon us Commanding us to submit our selves to one another and not to minde high things but to condescend to men of low estate Rom. 12.16 and not to be wise in our own esteem but in honour preferre others before our selves Rom. 12.10 How oft hath God professed to resist and take down the Proud and to give Grace to the humble and dwell with them Search carefully therefore lest this sinne get ground upon you For though it may not be so predominant and reigning as to damn you yet may it cause God to afflict you and hide his face from you and humble you by the sense of his displeasure and the concealment of his Love And though one would think that doubting troubled souls should be alwaies the most humble and freest from pride yet sad experience hath certified me that much pride may dwell with great doubtings and distress of minde Even some of the same souls that cry out of their own unworthiness and fear lest they shall be firebrands of Hell yet cannot endure a close reproof especially for any disgracefull sin nor cannot bear a disparaging word nor love those nor speak well of them who do not value them nor endure to be crost or contradicted in word or deed but must have all go their way and follow their judgement and say as they say and dance after their pipe and their hearts rise aginst those that will not do it much more against those that speak or do any thing to the diminishing of their Reputation They cannot endure to be low and past by and overlooked when others are preferred before them or to be slighted and disrespected or their words or parts or works or judgements to be contemned or disparaged Nay some are scarce able to live in the same House or Church or Town in love and peace with any but those that will humour and please them and speak them fair and give them smooth and stroaking language and forbear crossing reproving and disparaging them Every one of these singly is an evident mark and fruit of pride how much more all joyntly I seriously profess it amazeth me to consider how hainously most professors are guilty of this sin even when they know it to be the devils own sin and the great abomination hated of God and read and hear so much against it as they do and confess it so oft in their praiers to God and yet not only inwardly cherish it but in words actions gestures apparel express it and passionately defend these discoveries of it The confusions and distractions in Church and State are nothing else but the proper fruits of it so are the contentions among Christians and the unpeaceableness in families For only from pride cometh contention saith Solomon Prov. 13.10 For my part when I consider the great measure of pride self-conceitedness self-esteem that is in the greatest part of Christians that ever I was acquainted with we of the Ministry not excepted I wonder that God doth not afflict us more and bring us down by foul means that will not be brought down by fair For my own part I have had as great means to help me against this sin as most men living have had first in many years trouble of minde and then in near twenty years languishing and bodily pains having been almost twenty times at the graves mouth and living near it continually and lastly and above all I have had as full a sight of it in others even in the generality of Professors and in the dolefull state of the Church and State and haynous detestable abominations of this ageâ— which one would think should have fully cured it And yet if I hear but either an applauding word from any of fame on one side or a disparaging word on the other side I am fain to watch my heart as narrowly as I would do the thatch of my house when fire is put to it and presently to throw on it the water of Detestation Resolution and Recourse to God And though the acts through Gods great mercy be thus restrained yet the constancy of these inclinations assures me that there is still a strong and deep root I beseech you therefore if you would ever have setled Peace and Comfort be watchfull against this sinne of Pride and be sure to keep it down and get it mortified at the very heart 2. The next sin that I would have you be specially jealous of is coveteousness or love of the profits or riches of the world This is not the sin of the rich only but also of the poor and more hainous is it in them to love the world inordinatly that have so
thought to make it publick anâ— so had no room for Marginal Quotations nor time to transcribe that Copy that might have room nor indeed much minâ— of them if I had had both room and time As in all the Removes of my Life â— have been still led to that place or state which was furthest from my own thoughts and never designed or contrived by my self so all the Writings that yet I have published are such as have been by some sudden unexpected occasion extorted from me while those that I most affected have been stifled in the Conception and those that I have most laboured in must lie buried in the dust that I may know it's God that is the Disposer of all Experience perswadeth me to think that God who hath compelled me hereto intendeth to make this hasty writing a means for the calming of some Troubled Souls Which if he do I have my End If I can do nothing to the â—hurches publick Peace either through my own unskilfulness and unworthiness or through the prevalency of the Malady yet will it be my comfort to further the Peace of the poorest Christian Though to the former also I shall contribute my best endeavours and am with this sending to the Press some few sheets to that end with our Worcestershire Agreement The full accomplishment of both the subduing of the Prince of Darkness Confusion and Contention the destroying of that Pride self-esteem self-seeking and carnal-mindedness which remaining even in the best are the disturbers of all Peace the fuller discovery of the sinfulness of impeaceable Principles Dispositions and Practices the nearer closure of all true Believers and the hastning of the Churches Everlasting Peace These are his daily Prayers who is May 7. 1653. A zealous desirer of the Peace of the Church and of every faithful soul RICHARD BAXTER The CONTENTS THE Case to be Resolved pag. 1. DIRECTION I. Discover the true Cause of your Trouble 4 The continued necessity of a standing Ministry 6 DIRECTION II. Discover well how much of your trouble is from Melancholy or from outward Crosses and apply the Remedy accordingly 7 DIRECTION III. Lay first in your understanding sound and deep apprehensions of Gods nature 17 The Benefits that arise from the Apprehensions of Gods Goodness 18 DIRECTION IV. Get deep Apprehensions of the Gracious Nature and Office of the Mediator 28 DIRECTION V. Believe and consider the full sufficiency of Christs Sacrifice and Ransome for all 32 DIRECTION VI. Apprehend the Freeness Fulness and Universality of the Law of Grace or Conditional Grant of Pardon and Salvation to all men if they will Repent and Believe 33 DIRECTION VII Understand the difference between General Grace and Special and between the Possibility Probability Conditional Certainty and Absolute Certainty of your Salvation and so between the several Degrees of Comfort that these Severals may afford 35 How much Comfort the unconverted may receive from General Grace 39 DIRECTION VIII Understand rightly the true nature of saving Faith 49 DIRECTION IX Next perform the Condition by Actual Believing 55 Object I am not able to Believe Answered 56 Direction how to get Faith 59 How far the prayers of the wicked are acceptable 60 DIRECTION X. Next Review your own Believing and thence gather Assurance 66 The Witness of the Spirit and Spirit of Adoption what they are 68 71 Whether it be a Legal departing from Christ or any sinful trusting in our own Righteousness to gather Peace Comfort or Assurance from signs within us 74 Twenty Arguments proving it lawfvl to gather Comfort or Assurance from Gods Graces in us 75 DIRECTION XI Make use in Trial of none but infallible signs 86 Five certain signs together comprizing the Description of a true Christian 88 Twenty observable explicatory points for the right understanding of these signs 91 DIRECTION XII Know that Assurance of Justification or right to Salvation cannot be gathered from the least degree of saving Grace 119 Proved from the many exceeding Difficulties that must be overcome by all that will have Assurance in ordinary ways and from other Reasons 120 DIRECTION XIII The first time of our Receiving or Acting saving Grace and so of our Justification and Adoption cannot ordinarily be known 136 To affirm that saving sincerity of Grace lieth but in a Gradual Natural-difference is no diminution of the Glory of Grace 142 DIRECTION XIV Know that Assurance is not the lot of the ordinary sort of true Christians but onely of a few of the strongest most active watchful and obedient Proved 145 The observation of the Confessions of the Godly in this 151 DIRECTION XV. Know that even many of the stronger and more obedient who have Assurance of their Conversion are yet unassured of their Salvation for want of Assurance to persevere 160 The Authors free Confession of his own state and Judgement herein 162 DIRECTION XVI There are many grounds to discover a Probability of saving Grace where we cannot yet discern a Certainty And you must learn next to the Comforts of General Grace to receive the Comforts of the Probability of Special Grace before you expect or are ripe for the Comforts of Assurance 170 Proved that a Christian may live a Joyful Life without Assurance 178 DIRECTION XVII Improve your own and others Experiences to strengthen your Probabilities 179 DIRECTION XVIII Know that God hath not commanded you to Believe that you do Believe nor that you are Justified or shall be saved but onely Conditionally and therefore your Assurance is not a Certainty properly of Divine Faith 189 It is not Unbelief or Desperation in Christians which is commonly called so 193 DIRECTION XIX Know that those few that do attain to Assurance have it not constantly 209 DIRECTION XX. Never expect so much Assurance on Earth as shall set you above all Possibility of the loss of Heaven and above all apprehensions of real danger 211 The usefulness of Apprehension of danger opened 214 DIRECTION XXI Be glad of a setled Peace and look not too much after raptures and strong feelings of Comfort And if you have such expect not a constancy of them 227 DIRECTION XXII Spend more time and care about your Duty then your Comforts and to get and exercise and increase Grace then to discern the certainty of it 232 DIRECTION XXIII Think not that those Doubts and Troubles which are caused and continued by wilful Disobedience will ever be well healed but by the healing of that Disobedience or that such can be cured by the same means as obedient doubting Christians may 246 How far a Christian can or cannot do the Good he would 251 Three sorts of sins of Infirmity or so called opened 256 The state of a Christian under gross sin doubtful 265 Proved that Assurance dependeth much on careful Obedience And that when all is done the most obedient Believer will ordinarily have most and best Assurance of his sincerity and salvation 270 The Use of the former Direction 280 The Doubtings
were your own This is the benefit of the unity of the Church the blessings of one member of the body are blessings to the rest and if one Rejoyce the rest may Rejoyce with them not only for their sakes but also for their own Such as God is to the rest of his children such he is and will be to you He is as ready to pity you as them and to hear your complaints and moans as theirs And lest we should think that none of them were so bad as we he hath left us the examples of his mercies to worse then ever we were You never were guilty of witchcraft and open Idolatry as Manasses was and that for a long time and drawing the whole Nation and chief part of the Visible Church on earth into Idolatry with him You never had your hand in the blood of a Saint and even of the first Martyr Stephen as Paul had You never hunted after the blood of the Saints and persecuted them from City to City as he did And yet God did not only forgive him but was found of him when he never sought him yea when he was persecuting him in his Members and kicking against the pricks yea and made him a chosen Vessel to bear about his Name and as noble an Instrument of the Propagation of his Gospel as if he had never been guilty of any such crimes that he might be an encouraging example to the unworthiest sinners and in him might appear the riches of his Mercy 1 Tim. 1.13 16. see also Titus 3.3 4 5 6 7. Is there no ground of comfort in these examples of the Saints The same we may say of the experiences of Gods people still And doubtless it were well if experimentall Christians did more fully and frequently open to one another their experiences It were the way to make private particular Mercies to be more publike and common Mercies and to give others a part in our blessings without any diminution of them to our selves Not that I would have this so openly and rashly done by those who through their disability to express their mindes do make the works and language of their Spirit seem ridiculous to carnal ears as I perceive some in a very formality would have it as if it must be one of their Church customs to satisfie the society of the fitness of each member before they will receive them But I would have Christians that are sit to express their minds to do it in season and with wisdom Especially those to whom God hath given any more eminent and notable experiments which may be of publick use Doubtless God hath lost very much of the honour due to his Name and poor Christians much of the benefit which they might have received and may challenge by the mutual interest of fellow-members for want of the publike communication of the extraordinary and more notable experiences of some men Those that write the lives of the holiest men when they are dead can give you but the outside and carkass of their Memorials The most observable passages are usually secret known only to God and their own souls which none but themselves are able to communicate For my own part I do soberly and seriously profess to you that the experiences I have had of Gods special Providences and Fatherly care and specially of his hearing prayers have been so strange and great and exceeding numerous that they have done very much to the quieting of my spirit and the perswading my soul of Gods Love to me and the silencing and shaming of my unbelieving heart and especially for the conquering of all temptations that lead to Atheism or Infidelity to the denying of special Providence or or the verity of the Gospel or of the Necessity of holy Prayer and worshipping of God Yea those passages that in the bulk of the thing seem to have no great matter in them yet have come at such seasons in such a manner in evident answer to prayers that they have done much to my confirmation O happy Afflictions and Distresses Sufferings and Danger force us to Pray and force the cold and customary Petitioner to seriousness and importunity Importunate Prayers bring evident returns such returns give us sensible experiences such experiences raise faith love and thankfulness kill unbelief and Atheism and encourage the soul in all distresses to go the same way as when it sped so well I often pity the poor seduced Infidels of this age that deny Scripture and Christ himself and doubt of the usefulness of Prayer and holy Worship and I wish that they had but the experiences that I have had O how much more might it do then all their Studies and Disputes Truly I have once or twice had motions in my mind to have publikely and freely communicated my experiences in a Relation of the more observable passages of my Life But I found that I was not able to do it to Gods praise as was meet without a shew of ostentation and vanity and therefore I forbore DIRECTION XVIII 18. Next that you may yet further understand the true Nature of Assurance Faith Doubting and Desperation I would have you observe this That God doth not command every man nor properly any man ordinarily by his Word to Belâ—eve that his sins are forgiven and himself is Justified Adopted and shall be saved But he hath prescribed a way by which they may attain to Assurance of these in which way it is mens Duty to seek it So that our Assurance is not properly that which is called A Certainty of Belief I Have said enough for the proof of this Proposition in the third Part of my Book of Rest Chap. 1â— whither I must referre you But there is more to be said yet for the Application of it But first I must briefly tell you the meaning of the words 1. God commandeth us all to believe wicked and godly that our sins are made pardonable by the sufficient satisfaction of Christ for them and that God is very mercifull and ready to forgive and that he hath conditionally forgiven us all in the New Covenant making a deed of gift of Christ and pardon and Life in him to all on condition they Believe in him and Accept what is given 2. But no man is commanded to Believe that he is Actually forgiven 3. Therefore I say our Assurance is not strictly to be called Belief or a Certainty of Belief For it is only our Certain Belief of those things which we take on the meer credit of the Witnesser or Revealer which we call Certainty of Faith Indeed we commonly in English use the word Belief to express any confident but uncertain opinion or perswasion And if any will so take it then I deny not but our Assurance is a Belief But it is commonly taken by Divines for an Assent to any thing on the credit of the word of the Revealer and so is distinguished both from the sensible Apprehension of things and
complains that ordinary heads were not able to reach it He had got them with a Religious zealous Cruelty to their own and others souls to lay all their Salvation and the Peace of the Church upon some unsearchable mysteries about the Trinity which God either never revealed or never clearly revealed or never laid so great a stress upon Yet he perswades them that there was Scripture-pâ—oof enough for these Onely the Scripture spâ—â—e it but in the premises or in darker terms and they must but gather into their Creed the Consequences and put it into plainer expressions which Hereticks might not so easily corrupt pervert or evade Was not this Reverend Zeal and was not the Devil seemingly now a Christian of the most judicious and forward sort But what got he at this one game 1. He necessitated Implicit Faith even in Fundamentals when he had got points beyond a vulgar reach among Fundamentals 2. He necessitated some living Judge for the Determining of Fundamentals quoad nos though not in se the Soul of Popish wickedness that is what it is in sense that the People must take for Fundamentals 3. He got a standing Verdict against the perfection and sufficiency of Scripture and consequently against Christ his Spirit his Apostles and the Christian Faith That it will not afford us so much as a Creed or Systeme of Fundamentals or Points absolutely Necessary to Salvation and Brotherly Communion in fit or tolerable phrases but we must mend the language at least 4. He opened a gap for humane Additions at which he might afterwards bring in more at his pleasure 5. He framed an Engine for an Infallible Division and to tear in Pieces the Church Casting out all as Hereticks that could not subscribe to his Additions and necessitating separation by all dissenters to the Worlds End till the Devils engine be overthrown 6. And hereby he lays a ground upon the Divisions of Christians to bring men into doubt of all Religion as not knowing which is the right 7. And he lays the ground of certain heart-burnings and mutual Hatred Contentions Revilings and Enmity Is not here enough got at one Cast Doth there need any more to the establishing of the Romish and Hellish darkness Did not this one act found the Seat of Rome Did not the Devil get more in his Gown in a day then he could get by his Sword in three hundred years And yet the Holy Ghost gave them full warning of this before-hand 2 Cor. 11.2 3. For I am Jealous over you with a godly Jealousy for I have espoused you to one Husband that I may present you as a chast Virgin to Christ But I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplitity that is in Christ Rom. 14.1 Him that is weak in the Faith receive ye but not to Doubtful Disputations Psal 19. The Law of the Lord is perfect 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All Scripture is given by Inspiration from God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all Good Works Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to these it is because there is no truth in them With many the like This plot the Serpent hath found so successful that he hath followed it on to this day He hath made it the great Engine to get Rome on his side and to make them the great Dividers of Christs Church He made the Pope and the Councel of Trent believe that when they had owned the antient Creed of the Church they must put in as many and more additional Articles of their own and Anathematize all gainsayers and these Additions must be the peculiar Mark of their Church as Romish and then all that are not of that Church that is that own not those super-added Points are not of the true Church of Christ if they must be Judges Yea among our selves hath the Devil used successfully this plot What Confession of the purest Church hath not some more then is in Scripture The most modest must mend the phrase and speak plainer and somewhat of their own in it not excepting our own most reformed Confession Yea and where Modesty restrains men from putting all such inventions and explications in their Creed the Devil perswades men that they being the Judgements of Godly Reverend Divines no doubt to be Reverenced valued and heard it is almost as much as if it were in the Creed and therefore whoever dissenteth must be noted with a black coal and you must disgrace him and avoyd Communion with him as an Heretick Hence lately is your Union Communion and the Churches Peace laid upon certain unsearchable Mysteries about Predestination the order and objects of Gods Decrees the manner of the Spirits secretest operations on the soul the Nature of the Wils essential Liberty and its power of self-determining the Divine concourse determination or predestination of mans and all other Creatures actions c. that he is scarcely to be accounted a fit member for our fraternal Communion that differs from us herein Had it not been for this one Plot the Christian Faith had been kept pure Religion had been one the Church had been one and the hearts of Christians had been more one then they are Had not the Devil turn'd Orthodox he had not made so many true Christians Hereticks as Epiphamus and Austin have enrolled in the black List Had not the Enemy of Truth and Peace got into the Chair and made so pathetique an Oration as to inflame the minds of the Lovers of Truth to be over-zealous for it to do too much we might have had Truth and Peace to this day Yea still if he see any man of Experience and Moderation stand up to reduce men to the antient simplicity he presently seems the most zealous for Christ and tels the unexperienced Leaders of the flocks that it is in favour of some Heresy that such a man speaks he is plotting a Carnal Syncretism and attempting the reconcilement of Christ and Belial he is tainted with Popery or Socinianism or Arminianism or Calvinism or whatsoever may make him odious with those he speaks to O what the Devil hath got by Over-doing And as this is true in Doctrines so is it in Worship and Discipline and Pastoral Authority and Government When the Serpent could not get the World to despise the poor Fishermen that published the Gospel the Devil being Judged and the World Convinced by the Power of the Holy Ghost the Agent Advocate and Vicar of Christ on earth he will then be the forwardest to honour and promote them And if he cannot make Constantine a Persecutor of them he will perswade him to raise them in worldly glory to the Stars and make them Lords of Rome and possess them with Princely Dignities and Revenues And he hath got as
bear it and if you have not strength what will you do Nay how can you pray for deliverance from Gods Afflictings when you make more of your own And thus I have shewed you the danger of Over-doing and what a hindrance it is to a setled Peace both of Church State and Soul though perhaps it may not condemn a particular Soul so certainly in most parts of it as doing too little will 5. The next part of my Direction first exprest is that You avoyd causless scruples about doctrines duties sins or your own state These are also Engines of the Enemy to batter the Peace and Comfort of your soul He knows that it is chearful Obedience with a confidence of Christs Merits and Mercies that God Accepteth And therefore if he cannot hinder a poor soul from setting upon Duty he will hinder him if he can by these scruples from a chearful and prosperous progress First if he can he will take in scruples about the Truth of his Religion and shewing him the many opinions that are in the world he will labour to bring the poor Christian to a loss Or else he will assault him by the men of some particular Sect to draw him to that party and so by corrupting his Judgement to break his Peace or at least to trouble his head and divert his thoughts from God by tedious Disputes The Papists will tell him that they are the onely true Catholick Church as if they had gâ—t a Monopoly or Patent for Religion and had confined Christ to themselves who are such notorious abusers of him And as if all the Churches of Greece Ethiopia and the rest of the world were unchurcht by Christ to humour Master Pope though they be far more in Number and many of them sounder in doctrine then the Romanists are Those of other parties will do the like each one to draw him to their own way And the Devil would make him believe that there are as many Religions as there be odde Opinions when alas the Christian Religion is one and but one consisting for the doctrinals in those fundamentals contained in our Creed and mens lesser erroneous opinions are but the scabs that adhere to their Religion Onely the Church of Rome is a very Leper whose infectious disease doth compel us to avoyd her company As for any sort of men that deny the Fundamentals I will not call them by the name of Christians So also in Duties of Worship Satan will be casting in Scruples If they should hear the Word he will cause them to be scrupling the calling of the Minister or something in his doctrine to discourage them If they should Dedicate their Children to Christ in the Baptismal Covenant he will be raising scruples about the Lawfulness of Baptizing Infants When they should solace their souls at the Lords Supper or other Communion of the Church he will be raising scruples about the fitness of every one that they are to Joyn with and whether it be lawful to Joyn with such an Ignorant man or such a wicked man or whether it be a true Church or rightly gathered or governed or the Minister a true Minister and twenty the like When they should Joyn with the Church in the singing of Gods Praises he will move one to scruple singing Davids Psalms another to scruple singing among the ungodly another singing Psalms that agree not to every mans condition another because our Translation is bad or our Meeter defective and we might have better 〈…〉 should spend the Lords Day in Gods Spiritual Worship he causeth one to scruple whether the Lords Day be of Divine Institution another he drives into the other extreme to scruple almost every thing that is not worship Whether they may provide their meat on that day whenâ—yet it is a solemn day of thanksgiving and they scruple not much more on other thanksgiving days or whether they may so much as move a stick out of their way Others he moves to trouble themselves with scruples at what hour the day begins and ends and the like Whereas if they 1. Understood that worldly rest is commanded but as a help to spiritual Worship 2. And that they must imploy as much of that day in Gods work as they do of other days in their Callings and rest in the night as at other times and that God looks to Time for the Works sake and not at the Work for the Time sake this would cast out most of their scruples The like course Satan takes with Christians in Reading Praying in secret or in their families Teaching their families Reproving Sinners Teaching the Ignorant Meditation and all other duties too long to mention the particular scruples which he thrusts into mens heads much more to Resolve them which would require a large Volume alone Now I would intreat all such Christians to consider how little they Please God and how much they Please Satan and how much they break their own Peace and the Peace of the Churches If you send a man on a Journey would you like him better that would stand Questioning and scrupling every step he goes whether he set the right foot before or whether he should go in the foot-path or in the road or him that would chearfully go on not thinking which foot goeth forward and rather step a little beside the path and in again then to stand scrupling when he should be going If you send reapers into your harvest which would you like better Him that would stand scrupling how many straws he should cut down at once and at what height and with fears of cutting them too high or too low too many at once or too few should do you but little work Or Him that would do his work chearfully as well as he can Would you not be angry at such childish unprofitable diligence or curiosity as is a hindrance to your work And is it not so with our Master There was but one of those parties in the right that Paul spoke to Rom. 14 15. And yet he not onely perswades them to bear with one another and not to Judge one another but to receive the weak in fâ—â—th and not to doubtful disputations but he bâ—â—s them Let every man be fully perswaded in his own mind How Can he that erreth be fully perswaded in his errour Yes he may go on boldly and confidently not troubling himself with demurs in his duty as long as he took the safer side in his doubt Not that this should encourage any to venture on sin or to neglect a due enquiry after Gods mind But I speak against tormenting scruples which do no work but hinder from it and stay us from our Duty The same I say against scruples about your sins Satan will make you believe that every thing is a sin that he may disquiet you if he cannot get you to believe that nothing almost is sin that he may destroy you You shall not put a bit in your mouth but
he be not sound in his Religion and so needs not a Conversion to a sound faith but onely to a soundness in the faith The suddenness of the News must needs make those Violent Commotions and Changes in the one which cannot ordinarily be expected in the other who is acquainted so early with the truth and by such degrees 5. But suppose you heard nothing of Sin and Misery and a Redeemer in your Childhood or at least understood it not which yet is unlikely yet let me ask you this Did not that Preacher or that Book or whatever other Means God used for your Conversion reveal to you Misery and Mercy both together Did not you hear and believe that Christ dyed for sin as soon as you understood your Sin and Misery Sure I am that the Scripture reveals both together and so doth every sound Preacher and every sound Writer notwithstanding that the slanderous Antinomians do shamelesly proclaim that we preach not Christ but the Law This being so you may easily apprehend that it must needs abate very much of the Terrour which would else have been unavoydable If you had read or heard that you were a sinner and the Child of Hell and of Gods 〈◊〉 and that there was no Remedy which is 〈◊〉 a Preaching of the Law as we must not use to any in the world nor any since the first promise to Adam must receive Yea or if you had heard Nothing of a Saviour for a year or a day or an hour after you had heard that you were an Heir of Hell and so the Remedy had been but Concealed from you though not denied which ordinarily must not be done then you might in all likelyhood have found some more terrours of soul that hour But when you heard that your sin was pardonable as soon as you heard that you were a sinner and heard that your Misery had a sufficient Remedy provided if you would accept it or at least that it was not Remediless and this as soon as you heard of that misery what wonder is it if this exceedingly abate your fears and troubles Suppose two men go to visit two several Neighbours that have the Plague and One of them saith It is the Plague that is on you you are but a Dead man The other saith to the other sick person It is the Plague that you have but here is our Physician at the next door that hath a Receipt that will cure it as Infallibly and as easily as if it were but the prick of a pin he hath cured thousands and never fail'd one that took his Receipt but if you will not send to him and trust him and take his Reâ—eâ—â—t there is no hopes of you Tell me now whether the first of these sick persons be not like to be more troubled then the other and whether it will not remove almost all the fears and troubles of the latter to hear of a Certain Remedy as soon as he heareth of the disease though some trouble he must needs have to think that he hath a disease in it self so desperate or loathsome Nay let me tell you so the Cure be but well done the less Terrours and despairing fears you were put upon the more Credit is it to your Physician and his Apothecary Christ and the Preacher or Instrument that did the work and therefore you should rather praise your Physician then question the Cure DOUBT III. BVT it is common with all the world to consent to the Religion that they are bred up in and somewhat affected with it and to make Conscience of obeying the precepts of it so do the Jews in theirs the Mahometans in theirs And I fear it is no other work on my soul but the meer force of Education that maketh me Religious and that I had never that great Renewing work of the Spirit upon my soul and so that all my Religion is but meer Opinion or Notions in my Brain ANSWER 1. ALL the Religions in the world besides the Christian Religion have either much errour and wickedness mixt with some Truth of God or they contain some lesser parcel of that Truth alone as the Jews Onely the Christian Religion hath that whole Truth which is saving Now so much of Gods Truth as there is in any of these Religions so much it may work Good effects upon their souls as the knowledge of the Godhead and that God is Holy Good Just Merciful and that he sheweth them much undeserved Mercy in his daily providences c. But mark these two things 1. That all persons of false Religions do more easily and greedily embrace the false part of their Religion then the true and those they are zealous for and practice with all their might because their natural corruption doth befriend it and is as combustible fewel for the fire of Hell to catch in but that Truth of God which is mixt with their Error if it be practical they fight against it and abhor it while they hold it because it crosseth their lusts insomuch that it is usually but some few of the more convinced and civil that God in providence maketh the main Instruments of continuing those Truths of his in that part of the wicked world For we finde that even among Pagans the Prophaner and more sensual sort did deride the better sort as our prophane Christians do the godly whom they called Puritans 2. Note that the Truth of God which in these false Religions is still acknowledged is so small a part and so oppressed by Errors that it is not sufficient to their salvation that is to give them any sound Hope nor is it sufficient to make such clear and deep and powerful Impressions in their mindes as may make them Holy or truly Heavenly or may overcome in them the Interest of the world and the flesh This being so you may see great reason why a Turk or a Heathen may be zealous for his Religion without Gods Spirit or any true Sanctification when yet you cannot be so truly zealous for yours without it Indeed the speculative part of our Religion separated from the Practical or from the hard and self denying part of the Practical many a wicked man may be zealous for as to maintain the Godhead or that God is merciful c. or to maintain against the Jews that Jesus is the Christ or against the Turks that he is the only Redeemer and Teacher of the Church or against the Papists that all the Christians in the world are Christs Church as well as the Romans and against the Socinians and Arrians that Christ is God c. But this is but a smal part of our Religion nor doth this or any heathenish Zeal sanctifie the heart or truly mortifie the flesh or overcome the world They may contemn Life and cast it away for their Pride and Vain-glory but not for the hopes of a holy and blessed Life with God This is but the prevalency of one corruption against another or
study for you Make him know by experience that the tenth part of a Ministers labor is not in the Pulpit If your sins are strong and you have wounded Conscience deep go for his advice for a safe cure Many a mans sore festers to damnation for want of this And poor ignorant and scandalous sinners have far more need to do this then troubled Consciences I am confident if the people of my Congregation did but do their duty for the good of their own souls in private seeking advice of their Ministers and opening their cases to them they would finde work for ten Ministers at least And yet those two that they have have more work then they are able to do already Especially Ministers in small Countrey Congregations might do abundance of Good this way And their people are much too blame that they come not oftner to them for advice This were the way to make Christians indeed The Devil knows this and therefore so envies it that he never did more against a design in the world he hath got the Maintenance alienated that should have maintained them that so they may have but one Minister in a Congregation and then among the greater Congregations this work is impossible for want of Instruments yea he is about getting down the very Churches and settled Ministery if God will suffer him He setteth his Instruments to rail at Priests and Discipline and to call Christs yoke Tyranny because while the Garden is hedged in he is fain with envy to look over the hedge What if a man like those of our times should come to a Town that have an Epidemical Pleurifie or Feaver and say Do not run lâ—ke fools to these Physicians they do but cheat you and rob your purses and seek themselves and seek to be Lords of your lives It s possible some do so But if by these perswasions the silly people should lose their lives how well had their new preacher befriended them such friends will those prove at last to your souls that disswade you from obeying the Guidance and Discipline of your Overseers and dare call the Ordinances of the Lord of Glory Tyrannical and reproach those that Christ hath set over them England will not have Christ by his officers Rule over them nor the several Congregations will not obey him But he will make them know before many years are past that they refused their own mercy and knew not the things that belong to their Peace and that he will be master at last in spight of Malice and the proudest of his foes If they get by this bargain of Refusing Christs Government and Despising his Ministers and making the Peace Unity and Prosperity of his Church and the souls of men a Prey to their Proud misguided Phansies and Passions then let them boast of the bargain when they have tryed it Only I would intreat one thing of them Not to judge too confidently till they have seen the end And for all you tender Conscienc'd Christians whom by the Ministry the Lord hath begotten or confirmed to himself as ever you will shew your selves thankful for so great a mercy as ever you will hold that you have got or grow to more perfection and attain that blessed Life to which Christ hath given you his Ministers to conduct you see that you stick close to a judicious godly faithful Ministry And make use of them while you have them Have you strong lusts or deep wounds in conscience or a heavy burthen of doubtings or distress seek their advice God will have his own ordinance and officers have the chief instrumental hand in your cure The same means oft times in another hand shall not do it Yet I would have you make use of all able private Christians help also I will tell you the reason why our Ministers have not urged this so much upon you nor so plainly acquainted their Congregations with the necessity of opening your case to your Minister and seeking his advice 1. Some in opposition to Popery have gone too far on the other extream perhaps sinning as deeply in neglect as the Papists do in formal excess It is a good sign that an opinion is true when it is near to errour For truth is the very next step to error The small thred of Truth runs between the close adjoyning extreams of errour 2. Some Ministers knowing the exceeding greatnes of the burthen are loth to put themselves upon it This one Work of giving advice to all that ought to come and open their case to us if our people did but what they ought do for their own safety would it self in great Congregations be more then preaching every day in the week What then is all the rest of the work And how can one man yea or five do this to five thousand souls And then when it lieth undone the malicious Reproachers rail at the Ministers and accuse the people of unfitness to be Church-members which howsoever there may be some cause of yet not so much as they suggest and that unfitness would best be cured by the diligence of more Labourers which they think to cure by removing the few that do remain 3. Also some Ministers seeing that they have more work then they can do already think themselves uncapable of more and therefore that its vain to put their people on it to seek more 4. Some Ministers are over-modest and and think it to be unfit to desire people to open their secrets to them in confessing their sins and corrupt inclinations and opening their wants And indeed any ingenuous man will be backward to pry into the secrets of others But when God hath made it our office under Christ to be Physicians to the souls of our People it is but bloody cruelty to connive at their Pride and Carnal Bashfulness or Hypocritical Covering of their sins and to let them dye of their disease rather then we will urge them to disclose it 5. Some Ministers are loth to tell People of their duty in this lest it should confirm the world in their malicious conceit that we would be Masters of Mens Consciences and would lord it over them This is as much folly and cruelty as if the Master and Pilot of the Ship should let the Mariners govern the Ship by the Major Vote and run all on shelves and drown themselves and him and all for fear of being thought Lordly and Tyrannical in taking the Government of the Ship upon himself and telling the Mariners that it is their duty to obey him 6. Most godly Ministers do tell People in General of the Necessity of such a Dependance on their Teachers as Learners in the School of Christ should have on them that are Ushers under him the chief Master and they do gladly give advice to those that do seek to them But they do not so particularly and plainly acquaint People with their duty in opening to them the particular sores of their souls It is also the
you my judgement before Sure I am that the sudden looseness of their lives answering their ignorant loose ungospel-like doctrine did certifie me that the Spirit of Comfort was not their Comforter For he is also a Spirit of Holiness and comforteth men by the means of a holy Gospel which hath precepts and threatnings as well as Promises 2. And as the experience of the state of Believers assureth us that few of them attain to Certainty so experience of the imperfection of their understandings shews us that few of them are immediatly capable of it For how few Believers be there that understand well what is a sound evidence and what not Nay how many Learned men have taught them That the least unfeigned Desire of Grace is the Grace it self as some say or at least a certain evidence of it as others say Whereas alas how many have unfeignedly desired many Graces and yet have Desired the Glory and Profits of the world so much more that they have miscarried and perished How many have taught them that the least unfeigned Love to God or to the Brethren is a certain Mark of saving Grace Whenas many a one hath unfeignedly loved God and the Brethren who yet have loved house land credit pleasure and life so much more that God hath been thrust as it were into a corner and hath had but the worlds leavings and the poor Saints have had little compassion or relief from them nor would be lookt on in times of danger and disgrace As Austin and the Schoolmen use to say Wicked men do Vti Deo frui creaturis Vse God and enjoy the creatures Godly men do Frui Deo uti creaturis Enjoy God and use the creatures The meaning is Both Regenerate and Unregenerate have some Will or Love both to God and to the Creature But the wicked do Will or Love the Creature as their chief Good with their chiefest Love and they only Love God as a Means to help them to the Creature with a Love subordinate to their Love to the Creature Whereas the Godly do Will or Love God as their chief Good with their chiefest Love or Complacency and Love the Creature but as a Means to God with an inferiour Love If then the Nature of Sincerity be so little known then Assurance of Sincerity cannot be very common More might be said to prove that Certainty of Salvation is not common among true Christians but that it is labour in vain as to them seeing experience and their own ready confession doth witness it Now what 's the use that I would have you make of this Why it is this If Assurance of Sincerity and Justification much more of Salvation be so rare among true Christians then you have no cause to think that the want of it proveth you to be no true Christian You see then that a man may be in a state of Salvation without it and that it is not Justifying Faith as some have imagined nor yet a necessary concomitant of that Faith You see that you were mistaken in thinking that you had not the Spirit of Adoption because you had no assuring witness within you effectively testifying to you that you are the childe of God All Gods children have the Spirit of Adoption For because they are sons therefore hath God sent the Spirit of his Son into their hearts whereby they cry Abba Father Gal. 4.6 But all Gods children have not Assurance of their Adoption therefore the Spirit of Adoption doth not alwaies assure those of their Adoption in whom it abideth It is alwaies a witness-bearer of their Adoption But that is only objectively by his Graces and operations in them as a Land-mark is a witness whose Land it is where it standeth or as your Sheep-mark witnesseth which be your Sheep or rather as a sensible Soul witnesseth a living Creature or a rational Soul witnesseth that we are Men But efficiently it doth not alwaies witness as a Land-mark or Sheep-mark is not alway discerned and a bruit knows not it self to be a bruit and a man is not alwaies actually knowing his own humanity nor can know it at all in the Womb in Infancy in Distraction in an Epilepsie Apoplexie or the like disease which depriveth him of the use of reason Besides it 's no doubt but the Apostle had some respect to the eminent gift of the Spirit for Tongues Prophecies Miracles and the like which was proper to that age though still as including the Spirit of Holiness You see then that you need not be alwaies in disquiet when you want Assurance For else how disquiet a life should most Christians live I shall shew you more anon that all a mans comforts depend not so on his Assurance but that he may live a comfortable life without it Trouble of minde may be overcome Conscience may be quieted True peace attained yea a man may have that Joy in the holy Ghost wherein the Kingdom of God is said to consist without Certainty of Salvation If there be any passage in my Book of Rest Part 3 d in pressing to get Assurance which seem contrary to this I desire that they may be reduced to this sense and no otherwise understood This shall be further opened anon and other grounds of comfort manifested besides Assurance DIRECTION XV. 15. Yea this much more I would here inform you of That Very many even of the stronger holier watchfull and obedient Christians are yet uncertain of their Salvation even then when they are Certain of their Justification and Sanctification and that because they are uncertain of their perseverance and overcoming For a mans Certainty of his Salvation can be no stronger than is his Certainty of enduring to the end and overcoming THat you may not misunderstand me in this observe 1. That I do not say Perseverance is a thing uncertain in it self 2. Nor that it is uncertain to all Christians 3. But that it is uncertain to many even strong and self-knowing Christians Divines use to distinguish of the Certainty of the Object and of the Subject and the former is either of the Object of Gods Knowledge or of mans I doubt not but God knows Certainly who shall be saved which with his Decree doth cause that which we call Certainty of the Object as to mans understanding But men themselves do not alwaies know it If a man have the fullest Certainty in the world that he is Gods child yet if he be uncertain whether he shall so continue to the end it is impossible that he should have a Certainty of his Salvation For it 's he only that endureth to the end that shall be saved Now that many eminent Christians of great knowledge and much zeal and obedience are uncertain of their Perseverance is proved by two Infallible Arguments 1. By experience If any should be so censorious as to think that none of all those Nations and Churches abroad that deny the Doctrine of Certain Perseverance of all Believers
have any strong Christians among them yet we have had the knowledge of such at home 2. Besides the Difficulty of the Subject is a clear Argument that a strong Christian may be uncertain of it God hath made all those points plain in Scripture which must be Believed as of Necessity to Salvation But the Certainty of all Believers Perseverance is not a Point of flat Necessity to Salvation to be Believed Otherwise it would be a hard matter to prove that any considerable number were ever saved till of late or are yet saved but in a very few Countries It is a Point that the Churches never did put into their Creed where they summed up those Points that they held necessary to Salvation There are a great number of Texts of Scripture which seeming to intimate the contrary do make the Point of great Difficulty to many of the wisest And those Texts that are for it are not so express as fully to satisfie them Besides that the examples of these ten years last past have done more to stagger many sober wise Christians in this Point then all the Arguments that ever were used by Papists Arminians or any other To see what kinde of men in some places have fallen and how far as I am unwilling further to mention If you ask me what I think of this my self and consequently what Assurance I have of my own Salvation I will freely tell you both how far I am arrived in Assurance of Sincerity of Grace and Justification and how farre in the matter of Perseverance and so of Salvation I lay seven years under great Doubtings of the truth of my Sanctification especially for want of those Lively Affectionate Heart-melting effects which I desired to have found and for want of Deeper apprehensions of God Christ Glory Sin Misery Mercy Duty c. which made me still fear that all I had was but the meer effects of Education Reading and Speculative Knowledge and so that I had only a Notional Religion that touched my Phantasie and swom in my Brain but workt not throughly on my Heart for want of more Deep and Serious Believing of those holy Truths which should be operative Yet all this while Probabilities of Grace affording me that which we commonly call Hope did bear me up Now through the great unspeakable Mercy of my God I have attained to so strong a Probability of my Sincerity and Sanctification as in a large sense may be called Assurance or Certainty but not in the strictest sense much less is it a perfect Assurance I have so strong a perswasion of the truth of my Faith and so of the pardon of my sinnes as overcometh most doubtings and trouble of minde and keepeth me in quietness and peace of minde and some Joy in the holy Ghost and Delightfull thoughts of my everlasting Rest and gives me a Confidence in God and Access with boldness to the Throne of his Grace But yet I finde that carnal security hath a great hand in the alaying of my troubles though not in the raising of my Joyes And it is no unusual thing for a good Cause and a bad Faith Assurance and Carnal security to joyn together in one effect even in expelling trouble from the heart Yet dare I scarce say in the usual sense of the word that I am certain of my Sincerity and so of my Justification especially when Temptations have prevailed and the strength of the fleshes interest and the weakness of Christs interest in my Estimation and Will and Affections have appeared more then ordinary And when I have thought how much stronger Trials I may yet be put to which others daily undergo especially the Temptations of Prosperity do oftner make me fear then those of persecution and adversity I am sometimes afraid lest it be but the weakness of my Body and the distance of Objects and smalness of Temptations that makes them no more prevailing with me And that if I had as strong a body as others and were in that Dignity Wealth and Abundance of all things as some are whether Honors Carâ—al Pleasures Sports Delightfull Meats Drinks Beauty and such vanities might not carry me away as I see they do others that made as great a shew of Holiness Yet do not these doubts much affright or disquiet me because I finde God at present possessing me with those Resolutions to cast away all for Christ which I doubt not are the work of his own Grace and because I have experience of abundance of preventing and sustaining Grace and because I finde at the present that God enableth me to account all things loss and dross and dung for him and easily without much reluctancy to empty my purse for him and his poor and to lay out my time and strength for him and his Church and with some good success to resist Temptations and that I have no Desire in any activity or prevalency to be any higher in the world then I am but think God hath chosen out for me the best condition and station that I could have desired in all the world And then for Perseverance and Salvation this is my Case It is my strong opinion that no man who hath attained to a Rootedness in the Faith and so is throughly sanctified doth ever totally and finally fall away which Christ seemeth to intimate in saying that the Cause why men fall away in Tribulation and Persecution is because the seed had not deep Rooting Mat. 13. And I am yet more confident that none of the Elect shall ever fall away and perswaded that all the Rooted through-Christians are Elect. But yet I dare not say that I am Certain of this that all are elect to salvation and shall never fall away totally and finally who sincerely Believe and are Justified It is my opinion but I dare not put it into my Creed among either the Points of absolute Necessity or undoubted Verity I know how many Texts of Scripture seem to speak otherwise and I know how generally the Primitive Fathers thought otherwise if a man can know their mindes by their Writings I know that Austin himself the Mall of the Pelagians seems to be either unresolv'd or more against this Perseverance then for it I know how many Learned Godly men do differ from me and deny the Certainty of Perseverance I know how sad and shaking examples this age hath afforded And therefore I am not Certain properly strictly Certain of my Perseverance and so not fully strictly Certain of my Salvation Nor so near to a Certainty of my Salvation as I am to a Certainty of my Faith Justification Adoption and Sanctification Yet am I so strongly confident of it that I shall hold out and be saved that it doth not only calm and quiet my minde and overcome my troubles and fears but also enable me to Rejoyce in Hope of the Glory to come and to Desire Christs coming to Judgement and to think of Death with much more contentedness and